Adventures in Thailand

After many, many hours on a plane, first to Portland, than Tokyo, we finally arrived in Bangkok, Thailand. We all made it through immigration/customs without any problems, collected our luggage and sat down to wait for our client, Judah, who had both told us that he planned on meeting us at the airport, and that he'd meet us at the guest house, and try to get on the internet to see if there was any newer information from him. After about an hour, we gave up and headed for the guest house. The next morning we woke to an email from Judah, explaining that due to a major communication breakdown, he thought we weren't scheduled to arrive until the next night so he was still in Phnom Penn, but would be on the first available flight to Bangkok.

Not wanting to waste any of our time there, we decided to spend the first part of the day exploring the markets and seeing things with an eye for layout and camera angles with the other group before they headed north to Mai Sot. Then we set out on our own, eating some spicy Thai food and entertaining the wait staff. riding a river boat to one of the palaces, where we got conned into taking a "special" tour, where our second stop was a tailor selling custom-made suits and dresses. We finally met up with Judah late last night, and after a quick breakfast we headed to the bus station in Bangkok where Jessica and I had to stop for Dunkin' Donuts, just to see if they tasted different in Thailand, of course. Then we hopped on a bus for the first (and best) of our very long rides, bound for the Cambodian border. Most of us spend the day talking and getting to know each other better, which I think was really helpful for the days ahead.

As we watched the gradual change from city to rural, it was mostly what I had expected - a slow shift to ever more run down, or simpler houses, old-fashioned shops, occasionally a large golden Buddhist temple, and countless farms. What I didn't expect were the bright, neon busses and gas stations here and there, or shiny, spotless car dealerships in a rural area where cars were becoming less frequent. Even in Bangkok the number of scooters on the streets probably gave cars a run for their money, and we were amazed at the number of people, including small children, that we'd see piled on the back of their "motos".

The heat difference between Bangkok and Poi Pet, where we crossed the border, seemed insane. I don't know if it was less humid or more, or just a difference in temperature, but we were all sweating like crazy within a couple minutes of stepping off the bus, though the bus ride had been no arctic picnic. But it didn't take long before the heat was only a minor issue of discomfort. Seeing the squalor and horrible poverty in Poi Pet was so sobering. Even after going through some of the poorer areas Thailand, I don't think I was prepared for it. I heard later that this was typical of border towns, because they become a sort of no-man's-land, but never having done much traveling, it was all new to me at the time. The major roads through town were paved, but they were covered with dust blown in from the surrounding fields, garbage lining the streets, and the people living in shacks and lean-tos all over.

It was certainly different than the smaller villages in Thailand, but the change was probably more powerful  after we'd spent the previous day in a thriving metropolis like Bangkok. Even moving into the city proper, on the Cambodian side of the border, it was like entering a whole new world. As we walked down to the Ley Hotel to meet a friend of Judah's, I hated pulling my big, new suitcase full of clothes down the street, and realizing I probably had more clothes than a lot of the families we passed.

After our late lunch, we rode out to the farm that Judah and his friend Cham No had started, which we learned was home to a couple dozen orphans from the surrounding area. All the kids there help on the farm, which not only feeds themselves, but raises money for the children to pay for schooling. We had a real trial by fire, getting our cameras and equipment set up in minutes to get an interview with Cham No before the sun set, which made me really grateful for the time we had in Bangkok, that got us familiar with the 5D cameras we were using. We got some gorgeous footage, a wonderful impromptu interview, and only a few technical issues that we worked out fairly quickly. Like a lens shade I was holding slid off my binder and into the pond, but luckily one of the young men was willing to climb in and fish it out for me.

After we got all packed back up, we paid Cham No's van driver to make the 2 hour drive to take us to Sim Reap and the next leg of our journey...

Counting the Days...

Nine days until we leave. NINE days. That's just over a week until we'll be on a plane, laying over in Portland and Tokyo, then it's on to Bangkok, and from there to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. It still seems surreal, but the anticipation has built to the point that it's become palpable. (For those that don't know, "we" consists of myself; the three other students in my senior project group, Andrea, Landon, and Jessica; our amazing instructor, Mike Harper, who has been so encouraging of us taking on international projects that can make a real difference in the global community; and the associate director of our International Center, Grant Skabelund.) After we land in Bangkok, well be joining our client, Judah Becker, who has made it his mission to save children from human trafficking.

While we're in Thailand and Cambodia, we'll be gathering high-definition footage and still images that will show both the gorgeous and gritty sides of the culture, and interviewing three former sex slaves who are now free to live their own lives and make their own choices. We'll then compile this film footage into a short documentary that we'll be submitting to a number of film festivals in the coming year. We want to capture the desperation of a society that drives some parents to abandon or even sell their own children into prostitution, the challenges of rescuing and rehabilitating young people who have suffered through years of rape and every kind of abuse, and the hope and promise of a brighter future they now have, thanks to the effort and intervention of Judah and others like him.

Our group has also been working hard for the last couple of months to give a fresh new look and feel to Judah Becker's website, http://mercyhousecoffee.org/ and we'll be incorporating a number of the still images we collect on location to further enhance the amazing site design we've created. Our design isn't up there yet, but feel free to look around their old site (so you can see the "before"), learn a bit more about what they do, and order some of the yummy coffee, which supports the orphanages that house children rescued from trafficking.

I know all of us are very aware of the difficult subject matter that we've chosen as the focus of our project, and the potential dangers and challenges we might face (I'm sure I'm not the only one who's had friends and family repeatedly express concern for our safety), I also know I'm not alone when I say that very little of that outweighs the concern we have for the countless children who are still living such nightmarish lives. Many of them have never known anything else, and the ones that do remember something else feel hopelessly trapped, some believing that if they try to leave they would be dishonoring their parents' wishes.

If we can help change one child's life, whether it's by our own hands or because we've raised awareness of this issue even a little, than we've been successful. But we'd love to do more than that. As students in our final year studying Digital Media, we realize that there really isn't a better way to connect with people around the world, except through film and the internet. So why not use what we've been taught to change as many lives as we can? Honestly, that's one of the reasons I've always wanted to work in film; to share stories like this and focus on what's really important in life.

This is another editing project I did for class. Again the footage is not mine, but was recorded and used for educational purposes. The color correction, editing, and sound editing were all my own work. The video clips were completely without sound, so I overlaid all of the sound and music elements to the video clips for the finished product.

Solitaire Commercial

This is an edit I did to create a commercial ready for television viewing. The footage and sound recording were done previously by UVU students and faculty, but the sound and film editing, and color correction, were my own work. The still visuals were created by Solitaire's media group, but I did some editing for size and transparency using a photo editor.

Falling Down

This is Falling Down, a short film I worked on as cowriter, casting director, AD, director, editor, sound editor and color correction artist. Because we had limited resources in personnel, I would also work as sound engineer or camera operator to film some of the scenes. We also ran into issues with the limited resources in equipment, such as problems with the overhead boom microphone we had rented. Luckily our sound engineer had a hand-held microphone we used instead, though some differences in the sound quality resulted from the mixture of microphone types.

Storyboarding/Animation

Disclaimer: I did not write the poem or record the audio used in this video, nor do I make any claims of ownership for the characters, story, words, music or voice on this recording. It is part of a recording of the late Shel Silverstein, reading one of his many wonderful poems, titled "Sara Cynthia Sylvia Stout". This video was not created or used for any profit on my part, but was created only for educational purposes, and as a homage to poet and (in my opinion) genius. 

That being said, the artwork is solely my own, though Sara is based on Silverstein's illustrations in Where the Sidewalk Ends. I hand drew each element of the animation on 3X5 cards, then separated some of the scenes in photo editing software, or simply removed the background areas, then layered the different elements and created the animations in video editing software.

Digital Storyboard

This is a short animatic I created for a digital story boarding class. The clip consists of  4-5 different still images that were separated using photo editing software, then layered and animated in video editing software.